Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To the editor:

I am convinced it is time for positive change in NC, and a new representative for our District 77. Our current representative has been in office for more than 30 years and under her leadership, our hard-working citizens suffer from lack of affordable healthcare, childcare, and when our jobs vanish, the ability to earn money and pay our bills. When people cannot work, they do not have the ability to pay their bills or contribute to growing the economy and all of us are negatively affected economically.

Our current representative has not voted for the betterment of her constituents in Davie County. Her votes to deny the expansion of Medicaid directly hurt our healthcare and economic well being. The inaction by our General Assembly to expand Medicaid to working citizens in NC has resulted in needless deaths, people with diabetes and cancer going without medication, women lacking mammogram screenings for breast cancer, and a loss of 67,000 jobs that could have been created in our state to provide health care services.

Many employers have avoided paying for heatlh insurance by restricting hours worked by many employees, making it necessary to work more than one job just to pay bills. I know from experience that working more than one job makes it almost impossible to have quality family time and the stress from that contributes to disease. Quality family time is critically important in the development of children and our future well being.

Hard-working families deserve access to affordable healthcare. The Federal government made it easy to pay for Medicaid Expansion for people in all 50 states, but our NC General Assembly refused to allow taxpaying North Carolinians to benefit from this healthcare expansion. Vice President Pence expanded Medicaid for the residents of Indiana while he was governor in 2014, and I think our working North Carolinians are also worthy of a benefit that allows us to afford healthcare. As of Aug. 17, North Carolina is one of only 12 states that has not adopted the expansion.

After researching our incumbent’s overall voting record and looking at the actual needs of Davie County, I am voting for Keith Townsend. Mr. Townsend is a retired teacher from western Rowan County. He is knowledgeable, puts people before politics, and will work to represent us in Raleigh. Keith Townsend understands both the economic and health benefits for expanding Medicaid and wants to help hard-working families in NC. It is time for a positive change in the NC House of Represnetatives, and time to give Keith Townsend a chance to work to make life better for us in NC. Please read more about Keith Townsend, the 2020 candidate wanting to actually work for and represent us in the NC house, District 77.

Bonnie D. Clark,     Harmony